Reality is Not What it Seems

What are time and space made of? Where does matter come from? And what exactly is reality? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. Here he explains how our image of the world has changed throughout centuries. From Aristotle to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to the Higgs boson, he takes us on a wondrous journey to show us that beyond our ever-changing idea of reality is a whole new world that has yet to be discovered.

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Reviews

A global superstar... Professor Rovelli is making the grammar of the universe accessible to a new generation Channel 4 News Surely Rovelli deserves the title 'world's most inspiring physics teacher Daily Telegraph A top-flight theoretical physicist with a rock star reputation BBC Radio 4 World at One A comprehensive guide to the bewitching adventure of physics Daily Telegraph Rovelli writes with elegance, clarity and charm... A joy to read, as well as being an intellectual feast -- Michael Brooks New Statesman The physicist transforming how we see the universe Financial Times The latest thinking in physics is distilled in this primer... Why do you need yet another popularisation of theoretical physics? Because Rovelli writes with crystalline simplicity. And because he turns quantum physics into a coherent story, shaping it as a quest for a single, underlying "substratum" of reality - from Democritus's finite, indivisible atoms to Einstein -- James McConnachie Sunday Times Be prepared for your intellectual foundations to be vaporised... Carlo Rovelli will melt your synapses with this exploration of physical reality and what the universe is formed of at the very deepest level... Quantum gravity is so new that there aren't many popular books about it. You couldn't be in better hands than Rovelli, a world expert -- Tara Shears The Times Higher Education

Author description

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to the physics of space and time. He has worked in Italy and the US, and is currently directing the quantum gravity research group of the Centre de physique theorique in Marseille, France. His Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is an international bestseller translated into forty-one languages.